hard, while our journey has been long, we have picked ourselves up. we have fought our way back. and we know in our hearts but for the united states of america the best is yet to come. >> good morning, everybody. i'm thomas roberts. topping our agenda today, four more for 44. with a decisive win putting the wind at his back, president obama now looks ahead to a second term. calling himself more determined and inspired to face the challenges ahead. the president and his massive campaign machine captured a second term with a strong electoral advantage over challenger mitt romney. 303 electoral votes. and a narrow victory. in florida the race there still too close to call. in az acceptance speech in chicago, he mentioned the deep rifts and cracks that line his

road back to the white house. >> i believe we can seize this future together. because we are not as divided as our politics suggest. we're not as cynical as the pundits believe. we are greater than the sum of our individual ambitions. and we remain more than a collection of red states and blue states. we are and forever will be the united states of america. >> in the end as wildly predicted, ohio was what put the president over that all important 270 electoral vote threshold. the workers pulling obama in the state that was the linchpin to his re-election campaign. ohio and the two other states that together made up the unbreakable obama midwest firewall, the second being paul ryan's home state of wisconsin, the third iowa where it all began. you'll recall for then-senator obama four years ago. romney won in north carolina and

asked pundits to come together for the sake of the nation. >> america's at a critical point. we can't risk political posturing. our leaders have to reach across the aisle to do the people's work. and we citizens also have toe rise to the occasion. >> the question now, has obama gained any muscle headed into his second term? or will the sharply divided washington continue as status quo? >> what does this president do following lessons of the past to make sure that his second term is more effective than his first? >> the only thing worse than losing a re-election is winning it. >> now is not the time for just celebration or gloating. i think it's the time to really go where he went in the speech. take the high road. bring the country together. make some hard decisions. >> all right. so let's dig right in and bring in our election post game political panel. we have assembled quite the team. assisting managing editor of

time, executive editor of msnbc.com, professor at university of virginia center for politics, and columnist for the san francisco chronicle, and republican strategist. it's great to have you all here. i know it's been a long night for so many of us. we still have so much to talk about. ron, i want to start with you. the fact the president won this and did so with the decisive and clean victory. that can't be questioned. the battleground states coming through really especially in ohio. when we break down the numbers and show latinos that showed up, the younger votes that showed up for the president. everybody that came out, was it romney's to lose because the republican party wasn't able to coalesce women and minorities to say we have a candidate for you to choose. >> absolutely. i think that clearly he was pushed too far to the right.

it didn't work. but i think the economy at the end of the day was the real issue. and that was obama's to own. he grabbed the issue of the middle class. he owned it. romney made mistake after mistake on that front. the 47% comment. i mean, any number of issues there. and the latino voters, the young women voters. these are people who are very concerned about the future of their jobs, of income growth of the middle class. i think that's what happened in ohio in particular. >> larry, as we talked about earlier in the week in your crystal ball blog, you predicted the president would win with 290 electoral votes. you said it's published so you stand by it. now are the pollsters the real winners. people like yourself vindicated with the predictions and what came through? >> i'd like to think so. thomas, we got so much blowback in 99% of it was negative. and, you know, your shilling for

obama. he's not going to win at all. if he does, it'll be 270 votes. we undershot what the president did as you pointed out. i think he'll end up winning florida too. so what does that put him at? 331, something like that. to come down from 365 in 2008, but not that much of a comedown. look at what happened in the senate. who would have imagined a year ago that democrats would pick up senate seats when the odds were stacked heavily against them in this contest. something significant happened yesterday and the significant thing was we learned that 2008 was not a fluke. the demographic changes are permanent. and the message is sent to both parties. the democrats have adjusted to the changes. the republicans have not. >> all right. so let's talk, though, more about women and what it means. are we able to call the jon

tester? we'll say he's going to stay in his seat in montana. the incumbent as we said. overnight we were debating that one and what was taking place in north dakota as well. just so tight. let's talk about what we've seen, richard. this exclusive on obama and the campaign's management of how they were reaching out to people. and the -- i keep saying this. microsurgical campaign to reach the proper people in the right counties. how are they able to do it? >> first of all, the jon tester news is a big deal. here's someone who wanted the democratic high water in 2006. montana is a very conservative state. to your point about the microtargeting, we have used as we talked about the pollsters wins last night, we've used a very broad and crude measure of whether people show up to vote. we ask them are you likely to

vote? are you enthusiastic to vote? and there are these questions to try and measure that. sort of from a top-down perspective what the obama campaign did and this will be the model moving forward for every other campaign is saying we can find the individuals who have an ideological and we'll reach out to them individually because we know where they are. we can track them online. we can use the data bases. we'll build our own data bases. that modeling approach is of saying you may not be that enthusiastic, but you're kind of enthusiastic. if we keep bugging you, we're going to get you to the polls. more or less enthusiastic, it's whether campaigns can find actual individuals. >> ben labolt was quoted saying they had the nuclear codes to get it done. we'll see if campaigns take that

direction in the future. romney's wins were pretty much as expected. he was able to flip the states of north carolina and indiana. he did try to expand the map. we talked about this on monday in the final base, but let's look how he did in those states. down five in pennsylvania. that's what we were talking about specifically monday. down eight in michigan and minnesota. today a lot of talk has to be about how republicans are regrouping to go forward. they may have not gotten a lot of ground here in the short game, but about the long game to go. what this loss means for governor romney, what it means for regrouping of the republican party. >> yes. we have to be honest enough with ourselves to say we have a problem. when we say the problem is demographic, it isn't necessarily black, white, hispanic, and so forth. i believe it's white collar, blue collar. there's too many blue collar working families that feel the republican party does not understand them. doesn't understand what's important to them. and is not out there fighting

for them every day. we have to be honest enough with the party to understand that's a change we have to make if we're going to make gains in future elections. >> i want to ask you about the talk on whether the president has truly this second term mandate and what that means going forward. certainly there have been challenges in his first four years. but what's coming up right now and what everyone's talking about is the fiscal cliff. he's going to face this largely unchanged demographic. the democrats have maintained their majority and pick ig up a few seats. however, there is this divided power. projected to have maintained its solid majority. but listen to david gregory talking this morning on "the daily rundown." >> i think it's appropriate for an independent to come into this congress and say let's settle the score here a bit and talk about how we want to govern. because that i think is the real mandate that president obama brings into his second term. a mandate to make government

work better. it's not necessarily policy-specific. i think he'll have a bit more leverage. but people want to break through that and make government work better. >> how fast do you think the president can do is that? this mandate obviously that the american public respects what the president has done in his first four years, wants to see him succeed with that vision over the next four years. but also they are keeping in place this republican house. >> well, i think you're going to see an example of the new barack obama. he now is free of any need to think about re-election. he is now thinking about legacy and he's thinking about doing the job he was sent there to do. he has those skills. and i think he will demonstrate that before december 31st of this year when the bush tax measures are about to expire and of course obama says let them expire for those who are the wealthy. and i think he will be able to succeed. i also think that he has a better handle and a better understanding of how to deal

with the other elected types in washington, d.c. be they republicans or democrats. and i think he will employ that tremendous community organizing skills which brought him so successfully into the world of politics. i think he will implore that as he goes about doing the job that needs to be done. >> one thing that catches my eye out of the corner of my eye, we have the numbers from wall street. we're seeing red arrows across the board. and the dow jones taking a big hit. almost by 300 points. just below 13,000. so still a booming number at 13,000, but a big dropoff of 300 points. why? >> i don't know what else is going on in the market, but remember the low point for the market in the obama term was 5,600 in march of '09. whatever the fluctuations are,

the market's done really well over the last four years under the president. >> a big night for women last night. and what does that mean going forward? obviously women are not represented enough in elected offices, but it was pretty sweeping last night for mccaskill, for warren. big night. >> absolutely. i think it's part of this demographic shift that we know has been happening. it helped to bring a victory for the president. i think elizabeth warren's victory in particular is going to be interesting. if i were a banker, i would be concerned right now. i think you'll see more regulation of wall street. i think you'll see her hitting hard on that now that she's back in office. and i think that in general -- >> so that's why we're seeing the dow like this today? >> that and the fiscal cliff. >> thanks to the panel we've assembled today. and again we were talking about this reaction we have seen on wall street today. we're going to talk more about this throughout the hour right here. but again my thanks to rana, richard, the mayor there, john.

i know it's been a long night for so many of you. good to have you this morning. now that the election is over, john boehner is going to address that fiscal cliff issue today. will this divided congress be able to reach a partisan deal? emanuel cleaver is going to join me to talk about that. here's an interesting tidbit. president obama is the first democrat to win an election held on november 6th. republicans won the six previous ones. and we want to know what you think about this. president obama's decisive victory, what does this say about the state of the gop? tweet me your thoughts. find me on twitte twitter @thomasaroberts. [ male announcer ] humana and walmart have teamed up to bring you a low-priced medicare prescription drug plan. ♪ with a low national plan premium... ♪ ...and copays as low as one dollar... ♪ ...saving on your medicare prescriptions is easy.

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by itself the recognition we have common hopes and dreams won't end all the gridlock, solve all our problems, or substitute for the pain staking work of building consensus and making the difficult compromises needed to move this country forward. but a that common bond is where we must begin. >> president obama there making his victory speech acknowledging last night that the status quo won't break the gridlock that exists in washington. with the balance of power unchanged, many are wondering if leaders will be able to overcome stagnation in the bipartisan bickering that was there during the first term. we want to bring in chairman of the congressional black caucus. great to have you with us. as we heard, house speaker john boehner is expected to address the fiscal cliff later this afternoon in washington.

and re-elected our majority in the house. if there is a mandate, it is a mandate for both parties to find common ground and take steps together to help our economy grow and create jobs which is critical to solving our debt. so by keeping republicans in control of the house, sir, have voters reaffirmed their positions on taxes and spending? because if so, are we in store for much of the same of what we saw over the last four years? >> i think we're reading a little much into it. i think the voters just voted in individual districts. 435 individual districts. and it turned out the divisions in the country produced the kind of country we have. now, i do appreciate to some extent the words of the speaker. the last thing we need to do as democrats and the president i think is going to be functioning in harmony with what i'm saying. that is we cannot afford to have a touchdown dance in the end zone.

what we've got to do is be very, very cautious and careful as we move forward. here's something that has not happened in the past. we need to have the rank and file members of the republican caucus and democratic caucus to come together. we need to come together. and say, look. esop was right when he coined the phrase together we stand divided we fall. we can add a little to it, because together we stand divided we stall. and we cannot continue the stalling way of dealing with the business of the country. and we need to start from the bottom and go to our leaders and say, look. we are not interested in fighting anymore. >> sir, i want to look at some of the exit poll data that the particular racial breakdown we see comparing it to '08. the president's support among white voters dropping 44% compared to four years ago.

but he won 80% of non-whites four years ago. this year winning by 78%. nationwide as we look at the makeup, african-americans making up 13% of that vote. that's unchanged from four years ago. when the black turnout was record numbers. but do you think that this is more of an emotional or a psychological impact of having the first african-american president re-elect snd. >> i think it's a psychological impact on the country. but when i saw those numbers last evening, late last evening, i was alarmed. and i'm even more alarmed today. because it means that as the associated press reported in a poll about nine days ago, the nation is still badly divided racially. and we thought that things were getting better with the election of the first black president. the poll showed just the

opposite. that race relations have actually deteriorated. and the people of good will around this country and particularly in congress should come together. we've got to address this issue of race and of course this tribal politics we've been practicing which i think contributes to the racial problems. and, you know, we could really celebrate if there were a little better picture with the way the election went racially. >> congressman emanuel cleaver, thanks for making time for me this morning. i appreciate it. >> good to be with you. steve i se puede. what does that mean about the power of that vote? and what will he owe hispanics in return? and state senator nina turner. she's been on this hour a lot. said ohio would be delivered to the president.

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else in the united states. they care about the economy, health care, education. but of course what it means is that, you know, we're hopeful that the president and the congress will take up the dream act and take up comprehensive immigration reform sooner rather than later. >> and that was san antonio mayor julian castro on "the daily rundown" with our chuck todd. president obama's victory last night was largely thanks to his performance among key demographics. one group that came out big was latinos. performing better than four years ago when he got 7% of that vote. latinos were key in battleground states like colorado, nevada, and virginia. joining me now is latino contributor and usa today columnest raul reyes. i know it's been a long night.

thanks for being here with me this morning. >> my pleasure. >> let's get into this. there was a huge turnout and it's something the president had courted his campaign went after aggressively and it worked. what does it mean now over the next four years the fact that vote showed up for him. what type of promises should be delivered upon. >> in terms of showing up, i can tell you the latino community, hispanics on all sides of the political spectrum are so excited and energized. not only by the outcome of the election but this is our time when people wanted us to show up to be there and come to the polls and we did. we're in line with projections. so that is a huge step for us. our community has been often been called the sleeping giant. we're awake now. we are here. but going forward, obama has a tremendous challenge. because he has admitted that immigration reform was his greatest failure in his first term and he has promised that he will push for it and succeed at it in his second term. so that's something that he now

has to live up to. and hispanics are following this so closely. it's such a progressive issue with us. >> certainly in the battleground states, the latino vote was key. let's drill down on exactly where they are trending in term of party ideology. now identify themselves as democratic. 42% just eight years ago. 20% see themselves as republican. a lot of people were talking about it in advance of this election this might be the last time the republican party truly has a shot at the white house based upon their target of their campaign. and alienating the latino vote. and what we see four years from now with the amount of latinos that will be of age to vote, what is the way to grow their party? and to get more people interested in politics? because, you know, there are ideologues out there.

is there a way to b more inclusive. >> it's not so much the problem -- there's certainly problems within the gop. but more than anything, it centered on the candidate. because this election when we look at the latino vote, it was sort of in a sense a double rejection of mitt romney. number one on the immigration issue which for us it's not just a policy issue. it's so personal. one out of four latinos is a former immigrant. one of four know someone who's undocumented. that's importantous. and mitt romney was on the far right. his main message which was economic policy, the exit polls show 66% of latinos believe those policies favor the wealthy, the rich, the upper class. it was mitt romney. it was his candidacy. i think the party has to come back towards the center, listen to people, listen to voices like jeb bush who say we have got to moderate ourselves. we've got to, you know, tone it

down with moderation otherwise they don't have a future. i believe they do have a future, but they're going to have to go through some internal shift in where they are in terms of their messages towards latinos. >> and find the right candidate who can believe in that and sell that to this country. >> thanks, sir. we're going to be back with much more here on msnbc, the place for politics. don't go anywhere. campbell'ss that will make it drop over, and over again. ♪ from jammin' jerk chicken, to creamy gouda bisque. see what's new from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do.

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[ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. welcome back, everybody. keeping a close eye on what we're watching on wall street today. and market reaction this day. as we see the dow down 350 points today. but look at this. red arrows across the board. and we continue to hear more about what's taking place in europe. also coinciding with reaction to the presidential election. but still the markets very high close to 13,000. but this loss is something we'll keep our eye on for the day. we move on to ohio the state that put the president over the top last night.

90% of precincts voting. here's where the count in the buckeye state stands. 2.6 million showing up in the president's favor. i want to bring in a frequent guest here. neema turner who has her own brand of politics. very passionate about the fact you were going to deliver ohio to the president. you must feel vindicated about that prediction right now. >> i do, thomas. it's a great day for the state of ohio but also this nature. >> as we look at -- county was no different in that breakdown. the president won the 51% of the vote in that county. that's 97% white. why do you think the president was able to connect there so distinctly with the working class voters of ohio? >> because, thomas, his message resonated. the citizens of this state understood clearly who has been standing by them and that the

president's policies especially when it comes to middle class and working class folks that he has been trying over the past four years to lift this economy. and particularly the auto bailout, the lifeline he threw to the industry. i believe working class folks, whites, blacks, hispanic, asian and everybody else in the state decided to help him continue his good work. >> your area he won 70% of the vote there. but it seems the turnout for the president was down compared in 2008 by about 21,000 votes. what do you think effected the turnout specifically in your coun county? >> well, besides having to dodge all the republican suppression foolishness, let us not forget the citizens of this great state had less early voting opportunities than they did in 2008. we were outpacing our 2008 daily totals, however, before hurricane sandy hit.

so some of the residual impact of hurricane sandy had an impact on us. but to have 230 hours of early voting and 207 of those 230 were during business hours, we had four less weekends to vote this year. than we did in 2008. and working class people, how are you able to make it to the board of elections to vote between 8:00 and 5:00? we did not have our extended day work hours. but despite all of that, ohio delivered for the president just as i knew we would. >> all right. well, i know the election's over. you've been a great guest on this hour. let's make this more of an occurring process. great to have you on. >> thank you, sir. there is no way that claire mccaskill can survive. you know what happened? you proved them wrong. >> i want you to know i will

stand up for you and i ask you to work with me to move our state forward. >> -- the negative ads. it will once again strengthen. >> and despite the odds, you elected the first woman senator to the state of massachusetts. >> a big night winning moments of senators. then secured the chamber after holding at least a dozen of their own and picking up a couple from the m ares. the latest projected winner out of montana. making the call there getting 49% of the vote for jon tester there. give or take four seats in favor of the gop. with that shift in power, there is word on the hill that despite her winning another term, nancy pelosi of california may be planning to step down. began when pelosi moved to december 5th.

where do these z new players fit in the balance of power and why does it matter? contributor jimmy williams is here to break it down for us. my man who was with me through the night for the insomniacs. all right. so elizabeth warren, a big emotional win for the democrats getting back that seat that was teddy kennedy's for so long. what does the new leadership role mean? >> understand how the senate works. when a freshman senator comes in, they don't have a leadership role. they may have a symbolish role. taking the seat back -- being against the banks. which is the new financial protection bureau. >> certainly, absolutely. question question becomes what will the role be in the senate. most freshman senators when they come in, they sit back on the

back benches. they sit down, they listen, they come up with an expertise area whether it be immigration and taxes or whatever it is. and they learn as much as they can. and they give speeches when needed. and they keep quiet. that's what freshman senators usually do. in the mold of a hillary clinton, in the mold of certain senators that did that. there are certain senators who have not done that in their first year terms. rand paul, jim demint. these are tea partiers. they don't care about the protocol. when it comes to new coming in, i suspect some of them will be the tea party mold. this one will not. >> we'll watch that one closely. one thing when we talk about leadership roles is the fact paul ryan had a b-plan to stay in his spot. what does it mean for him moving forward? >> paul ryan continues to be the chairman of the house budget committee which matters. because of the fiscal cliff.

and because of the fy-13 or 2013 appropriations which have now been moved to next year. how much of a player does he make himself? is he going to be at the table at the white house like he was in august of 2011 when he very much pushed back against the white house and the rhetoric? he will be way more than a big player. but i think he may not try to be in your face as you might expect. >> expect him to talk about the fiscal cliff today. do you buy it? >> i like speaker boehner. he's old school. but i think he has a caucus biting at his heels. i don't know that he'll do that or won't. >> great to have you here. thank you so much. something to keep you up to speed on because we are watching it. this possibility of a nor'easter adding insult to injury on the

eastern seaboard. now bracing for this bad weather. today this storm could dump up to a foot of snow and bring more flooding to coastal areas. more than 1200 flights have been canceled. and michael bloomberg is urging residents in areas affected by sandy to head to shelter. bill, how soon are we going to know what this storm is going to be? the impact specifically? >> right now, thomas, because it's not far off the shore, the max effects being pushed towards the coastline. heading towards high tide on the jersey shore. noon to 2:00 this afternoon. and the storm surge of two to four feet will move on shore. if we're going to get damage from the additional waves, it'll happen during the hours. the other thing that's got attention is the snow. snow totals have been upped in most areas. you can see the big storm off the coast. as far as what we're dealing with with the snow. the white is the snow. notice philadelphia on the upper left side of your screen.

you could be one of the jackpot areas. you could see some of the highest totals. up to new york city now gets reports of snow mixing with the rain. even reports of sleet. lots of areas outside new york city are going to get significant snow out of this. breaking out over much of coastal connecticut. so how much snow are we talking about? the possibility of three to six inches. if not a little more to the east side of philly. even new york city outside the city could see up to four inches. and the other big impact is going to be the winds. they're already gusting 40 to 50. and the peak of the storm up to 70 miles an hour. a lot of people are going to lose power in this region after they just got it back on from sandy. >> and certain people still don't have it. this is insult to injury. bill kairns, thank you. coming up next, the grand outdated party? a new acronym for the gop. i'm joined in the spin room to talk about that. keep it locked into msnbc, the place for politics. one.

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how did president obama's victory play around the world? the headline in the german newspaper bbild, yes he can. four more years. from the jerusalem post, one more term. and the moscow times, putin congratulates obama on re-election. back here in the u.s., a lot of soul searching going on in the gop. joining me to talk about that contributor ron reagan's son and also strategist john ferry. ron, i want to start with you. president obama saying that the road ahead is to work together. but how much of that do you think is going to be accompli accomplished when we saw on the first term so many were outspoken about trying to make this a one term proposition for the president. >> exactly.

you'll recall that mitch mcconnell stepped up shortly after the election, announced the priority, the national priority for republicans was simply to make obama fail. to make him a one term president. they had a meeting the day of his inauguration where the republicans pledged to do anything they could to stop him from doing anything. it is now on the republican party to help out the president elected by the american people. i don't know what the mandate is in terms of policies for president obama, but clearly the american people want their government to work. this is a mandate to govern. and if the republicans stand in the way of that and if president obama makes it clear that they are standing in the way of governance, the republican party will pay a price in the midterms. >> i want to speak about "the new york times" columnist and what he said today.

the republican peat needs to have a real heart to heart with itself. the gop has lost two presidential elections in a row because it forced its candidate to run so far to the right to get through primaries that he could not get close enough back to the center to carry the national election. is that the problem? these extreme agendas and not being able to resonate to get the support you need to break through. >> well, the primary process as hal hailley barbour said, i don't think that was the big problem. i think the republican base was energized. i think they did a good job with swing voters. i think the obama campaign did a wonderful job. this was a close election. the romney campaign did a pretty good job of getting everybody together. but obama's organizing -- we make fun of him being a community organizer, but it came

in handy for his campaign. i think the republicans have to understand that change in the country. and they've got to do a better job of not only communicating but coming up with better policies. i would say to ron's point, the republicans will have to cooperate early on. you have the fiscal cliff. they're going to want to get a deal on that and taxes. they're really going to have to get a deal very quickly, i think, on immigration reform. because the longer this hangs over the head of republicans, the harder for them to make inroads with the hispanic community. >> we saw with the president winning 93% of black voters, 71% of latinos. and also married women and young voters. mitt romney 78% of white evangelicals. ron, i want to ask you. the party going forward really needs to shake this off, regroup. but if they are the party of smaller government and less taxes, how do they get back on that narrative and what needs to

be done in people's bedrooms? >> they've got a big problem, the republican does. they have a sizable chunk of their base as john was saying that just aren't amenable to compromise. these are people wait out there. the problem for republicans is that that sizable chunk of their base scares the majority of americans. majority of americans don't want scalia in their bedroom. they believe as they said in the exit polling, they believe rich people should pay a little more in tough economic times. they don't buy the tea party line. but the tea party is half the republican party. so you've got a divided republican party, divided against itself. and they're going to have to figure out what to do about that. >> ron reagan, john ferry, thanks for joining me. i appreciate it. jumping on right now, we asked and you answered. president obama's decisive victory, what does it say about the state of the gop?

frank says the gop needs to learn an important lesson. it's about the people, not the party. then we get this from dtd. excuse me. dtd823. it's been a long night, people. tweeting recognizes their need to reevaluate their brand. hope it brings them back ready to work together. we encourage you to comment and find us on facebook, we're back with much more right after this. [ female announcer ] want to spend less and retire with more? then don't get nickle and dimed by high cost investments and annoying account fees. at e-trade, our free easy-to-use online tools and experienced retirement specialists can help you build a personalized plan. and with our no annual fee iras and a wide range of low cost investments, you can execute the plan you want at a low cost. so meet with us, or go to etrade.com

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watching trend ballot initiatives in plain english a whole lot of weed on at ballot in a lot of places tonight. >> all right. a delightfully candid moment from nbc's brine williams cutting to the heart of a couple decisions. massachusetts voting in favor of medical mare wan, 63 to 37%,

colorado went to pot recreationally voting 55 to 45% to legalize it. federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug so don't break out the cheetos and gold fish too quickly. maine, maryland, minnesota and washington where voters in those states said yes to marriage equality. joining me now live from manchester bishop robinson of the episcopal dioceses of new hampshire. great to have you with me today. i want to show you what the president himself said last night about history in the making. take a listen. >> it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you live love, black, white, hispanic, asian, native american or young or old or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight, you can make it here in america if you're willing to try. >> bishop, as we look back, how

much do voters in maryland, in maine, as well as in minnesota and washington state, owe the president for coming out this summer in favor of marriage equali equality? >> i think it's almost impossible to overstate the importance of the president's support for gay marriage and what i love about his statement last night is that i think he says it in the right context. this election was really about the stepping forward of all kinds of marginalized groups to really make a difference in this country. african-americans and hispanics and young people and certainly we see that in the marriage equality votes which look to be a total sweep of the four questions that came up on the ballot. >> another big headlining moment from last night is tammy baldwin becoming the first openly gay woman in had history to be elected to the u.s. senate. what do you think about that moment, combined with these

ground-breaking decisions i think for a lot of people it's a reflection of how we remember in 2008, president obama being elected but in california, prop 8 going through? >> you know, i think this is a see change moment. i think we see the real mainstreaming of gay and lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, so tammy bald wynn's election is really pointing to the future and that -- and i think it's a vindication that harvey milk was right, you know, the slain civil rights leader for lgbt people. when you get to know us, you can't help but love us. and as mainstream americans get to know their gay and lesbian neighbors, it is increasingly the case that they want to see them in all levels of our leadership and having the first openly gay person in the senate is a real step forward. >> big turning of the time. bishop gene robinson, great to

have you on as always. i appreciate it. >> thank you, tom. >> that's going to wrap things up for me. i'm going to see you back here tomorrow at 11:00 eastern. i'll be much more well rested at that time. don't go anywhere, though. an equally tired alex wagner, she looks great, but equally tired, i know it, she's coming up next on "now." ♪ these are... [ male announcer ] marie callender's puts everything you've grown to love about sunday dinner into each of her pot pies. tender white meat chicken and vegetables in a crust made from scratch. marie callender's. it's time to savor. i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options.

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